Are efficient LED bulbs worth the price?

Right now I can get a small supply of Philips L Prize 60w Led bulbs at an attractive price. Is it worth switching my home and business over if I already have CFLs installed? The CFLs always seem to burn out early, for some reason. The one I can get is the 9290002097 model no. LED Bulb Test . Any thoughts or reliable calculators? Thanks in advance for your reply! Tom D

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IMHO what needs to happen is FIXTURE redesign. Lets design fixtures that can only use LEDs or CFLs and open up tons of design possibilities. Trying to make all fixtures take A19 bulbs and then trying to optimize LED/CFL for a shape optimized for incandescent is backwards thinking. LED fixtures could be less than 1" think, flush to a wall or ceiling.

Now it's just a question as to when they get to a competitive price point. The cool factor of the new designs will add value to buyers, but prices will need to drop for the fixtures to become mainstream.

The only problem with a move to alternatives other than A19 is the consumer's healthy suspicion of being roped into a particular form factor available from a sole manufacturer. Various pin base and other standards are out there but lamp cost tends to be 3-5x A19 equivalent lamps.

Until a competitively priced widely adopted standard emerges, A19 will live on.

WHOA! - wait a minute...much of the hype surrounding LED is that they'll greatly outlast CFL and thus have a life cycle cost that overcomes their first cost.

Now you are saying,essentially, that we should plan for early obsolescence of whatever we buy today...there goes the life cycle cost argument.

While I agree that mobile phones don't last, I think that results from a combination of early failure, evolving mission, and marketing that makes a new phone same or cheaper price as replacing battery in a 2 year old phone.

+1 on life cycle of LED's. From an energy savings prospective LED and CFL are really close on lumens per watt. LED does well in low lumen applications, but CFL wins in high lumen applications. Regular 4' T8/T5 lamps destroy both CFL and LED in terms of initial cost and Lumen per watt numbers. LED has a LONG way to go before it gets anywhere near 4' T8/T5's numbers. 4' lamps are dominant in commercial for a reason...

I've been watching and testing LEDs for several years and can say that, while there is definitely variability both in quality and price, the technology is maturing rapidly. I now use them in 75% of the applications in my house. Yes, in this case I'm playing the early adopter, but it's the way I can learn about them. Surprised that the users of this site would not all feel the same way.

Just today installing track lighting, and using 6W GU-10 LED lamps that are quite comparable with 50W halogens. Three to a fixture, this is real savings even at $20 each. Good color temperature, and if you watch what you're getting, good CRI.

This one example should point out that the bulky heat sinks are old technology. Keep watching, and start tyring them out! One source I'd recommend (can I do that here?) is Lemnis Lighting, who makes a great product and is bringing the price down a LOT. Great to see -- support this industry. BTW, in the Home Depot lighting aisle, there is ALWAYS a crowd in front of the LED display -- so consumers are very interested. CFLs are subsidized, and hopefully this will soon extend to LEDs.